Fig's Frippery

So I changed my mind about which fabrics to use for the bag I want to make.  Yesterday I went ahead and cut out some fabric. I didn’t have time today to progress to actually sewing anything.  Tomorrow I hope to cut out some fabric for pockets as well and maybe actually set up the machine to sew a bit.  The floral fabric will be the body of the bag and internal pockets; the checkered fabric will be the lining, straps, and external pockets.

I’ve been getting itchy fingers to get back to my sewing. I want to make the diaper bag I had in mind before baby Cormac was born.  I think I’ll start with a trial bag using other fabric before I try the planned bag.  It will be sort of a big tote.

Here is the fabric I think I’ll use for the trial bag.

I am so excited to get back to my sewing projects. Now I just need to find/make the time to do it.  I brought up most of what I need from the basement.  Hopefully I’ll have a chance to at least cut some fabric out tomorrow. Then we’ll go from there.

I just love flower jewelry. I love wearing flowers on my ears, on my fingers, around my neck, etc. Today I came across the beadscrafts Etsy shop while reading the blog Everyday Beautiful and I love all the beautiful flowers.  I’ll be saving my pennies to buy some of these.

Cormac Joseph

Born: September 18, 2009, 10:49pm EST
Weight: 8 lbs, 9 oz (biggest kid in the maternity ward, but the smallest birth weight of our three sons)
Length: 20 inches
Hair: Blond (a little peach fuzz on top, and tuft at the back)
Eyes: Blue (assuming this doesn’t change)

Pictures available here: http://lainiefig.shutterfly.com/1276

Meaning of the name Cormac: “From old Irish corbmac “son of the charioteer.” Cormac Mac Airt was probably the most famous of the ancient kings of Ireland. As the ruler of Tara, the seat of the high kings of Ireland, for forty years (probably 227-266 AD), he was famous for his wise, true and generous judgments. Cormac owned the wonderful gold cup given to him by the sea-god Manannan Mac Lir. If three lies were spoken over it, it would break in three; three truths made it whole again. Cormac used this cup during his kingship to distinguish falsehood from truth and when he died, the cup vanished. It was a very popular name in early Ireland and is still used today.” (source: http://www.babynamesofireland.com/pages/boy-names-c-d.html; click the link to hear this description read aloud)

Today I finished the other two pillowcases for Peggie.

Here’s one of them:

After I did that I whipped up some little drawstring bags.  I wanted one and they’re so easy I went ahead and did three of them.  Here they are:

Obviously I was in a floral mood.  Now I just have to figure out which one I want to keep for my own use.

I finished two of Peggie’s pillowcases today.  Here is one of them:

I plan to finish the two with the other fabric tomorrow and soon after send them on out (barring something really urgent and important coming up, like going into labor–which I’d really like to happen sooner rather than later!)

Today I finished the 12 black and white napkins for my lovely friend Tneah.

Here are some pics:

6 of the napkins

6 of the napkins

Under small salad plate

Under small salad plate

Folded in four, on dinner plate

Folded in four, on dinner plate

These were pretty fun and fairly easy.  Tneah, hope you like them!  Tomorrow I’ll be conquering Peggie’s pillowcases (unless I go into labor before then, ya never know).

First of all, I have to confess a failure of sorts — or at least a surrender.  I have been planning to make some napkins with bright-colored Mexican woven fabric — great-looking fabric but so hard to work with, as it turns out.  I had a feeling it would be as soon as I got it.  Then when I prewashed it, the shrinkage and fraying and thread-loosening worried me.  I then thought maybe I would just sew a cotton backing onto it to protect the back from more thread-loosing.  So I went ahead and cut out all the pieces of the woven fabric and the cotton.  Then today I made  a stab at doing a napkin.  Well, here it is:

Maybe it doesn’t look so bad here–and it’s not so much how it looks that troubles me.  For one thing, it’s pretty small.  Contrast it here with one of the black and white napkins I’m also working on today:

For another thing, it just doesn’t seem very durable to me.  A napkin is going to get dirty — it’s the nature of its use.  And of course once it’s dirty it will need to be washed.  I just don’t think these are going to make it through many washes.  There is probably a way to work with woven fabric or treat it to make it work better, but whatever it is, I don’t know it.  I think I may have to abandon this project and disappoint my friend Deb.  ***sigh***  I’m sorry, Deb.  At least you haven’t paid anything for it!

So since I pushed that project aside, I went on to making the black and white napkins for my friend Tneah.  Here’s the work in progress:

This is so much easier since the fabric is cotton, my usual fabric.  I finished the 6 white with black already and soon I’ll get up and start on the black with white.

I’ve been sitting on my stability ball at the sewing machine.  It’s more comfy than my dining chair and I am hoping if I bounce about on that thing a bit gravity will pull the baby downward a bit.  I’ll try anything at this point!

Another project I’d like to do — but which I probably won’t start before baby and I know I’ll never get around to after baby comes — is a diaper bag.  I got this fabric for it:

I got both of these from another Etsy seller: Daffodil Hill.  If you pay much attention to the various fabrics I order, you may notice that Michael Miller fabrics are a big favorite of mine.  The bright colors and zany designs are right up my alley.  Anyway, I also ordered some vinyl fabric to line the inside.

I was thinking I’d do a bag similar to this very small one I did:

I saw a woman carrying a diaper bag in a similar pattern (just on a larger scale) and thought I could copy the design and add a lining and some pockets where I like them.  Fun!  Now we’ll just see if I ever have time to get around to this.

After posting pics of the pillowcases I made for my hospital trip, a friend asked me to make her some pillowcases as well.  Together we picked out some fabric online and I just received it in the mail the other day.  So soon (that is, if the baby doesn’t arrive sooner) I’ll be sitting down to whip up some pillowcases for Peggie out of these fabrics:

I bought these fabrics from one of my favorite sellers, Fabric by the Yard.  I actually already had a couple yards of that top fabric–plan to make a skirt out of it…eventually.